Save Food Waste Composting!

Recently the City of Milwaukee sent out a Request For Proposals (RFP) to potential commercial waste haulers to replace the current food waste composting pilot project. While the current program through Compost Crusader, a woman-owned local business, allows for both yard and food waste, the RFP offers options of:

1. Yard Waste Only
2. Food Waste & Yard Waste
3. Food Waste Only

With the possibility of changes coming to the City of Milwaukee’s pilot food composting project we are encouraging our Milwaukee resident owners and shoppers to reach out to City officials and let them know that food waste composting and working with small, local businesses is important.

The original pilot project accepted compostable food containers such as molded fiber and bioplastics (plant-based), but that changed in fall of 2019 due to limitations with the available composting infrastructure. Currently there are parties working to make composting food containers an option again, though if the new contract is granted to a provider that only takes yard waste, the net effects have the potential to set back that opportunity indefinitely.

Outpost is committed to our mission to reduce and then eliminate single-use petroleum-based plastic co-op packaging and consumables by 2022. Our owners and shoppers want an outlet for proper handling of compostable packaging through an inclusive curbside program.

Take Action

Let your voice be heard by contacting these parties by the RFP deadline of March 6:

Dept of Public Works: dpwmilw@milwaukee.gov

Sponsors of the original food composting pilot program:

Alderman Tony Zielinski: tzieli@milwaukee.gov

Alderman Robert Bauman: rjbauma@milwaukee.gov

Alderman Nik Kovac: nkovac@milwaukee.gov

Here's what others are saying: 

Op-Ed by Plastic-Free Milwaukee Co-Founder Mary Lou LaMonda

Urban Milwaukee Follow-up by Jeramey Jannene

City of Milwaukee Dept of Public Works FAQ

READ about Outpost’s commitment to composting

www.outpost.coop/about/sustainability/composting.php

Outpost has been composting since 2013. Food scraps from our store produce departments and cafés as well as our central kitchen processing facility are collected and stored outdoors. We partner with local companies to haul and compost it for us. Keeping it local allows us to better monitor what goes in and what comes out and forms lasting partnerships that make sustainability a benefit of doing business.